Effort
Effort
Mae realized what had happened immediately and reacted with her greatest speed, grabbing Ryu with one hand and his great swordstaff in the other.
'Oof…'
Mae's gaze was colored with surprise when she noticed the heft of Ryu's great swordstaff. Was this sort of heavy weapon really the kind one should dual wield? Just imagining the strain on one's joints made her heart tremble. Just because they were cultivators didn't mean that they were immune to the wear and tear of tendonitis and other related musculoskeletal ailments. In fact, those kinds of hidden injuries on cultivators might be even worse than they'd be on mortals.
If a mortal suffered joint pain or weak tendons, they could just stop and rest. But a cultivator's life was filled with activity, of which hidden injuries were the bane of.
However, Ryu didn't seem like a person suffering through joint pain. But then again, considering what she knew about him, if he was, he wouldn't show it.
When she thought about how Ryu threw his weapons away mid battle, she became a hint more worried. Was she overthinking things?
If Ryu was simply far stronger than her, she could accept it. But the problem was that these great swordstaffs felt so heavy and she knew that Ryu's bodily strength despite his bloodlines was only comparable to hers.
There might have been some changes since they last fought, but that didn't change the fact that Ryu often used these weapons long before any changes to his physique.
Despite the weight of Ryu and the weapon, Mae managed to soar forward, allowing the winds to carry her to the city limits. She was shocked to find that just flapping her wings took a heavy toll on her. It made her realize that if it wasn't for Ryu's Sword God aura, making it here in such a short time would be almost impossible.
She realized that it was too difficult to soar over the city walls, so she landed on the small ledge of earth around the base of it. Of course, "small" was just relative. While it was indeed small in comparison to the entire city given its scope and size, there was still several hundred meters of distance between their location and falling down to the ground below entirely.
Mae set Ryu down and took deep breaths. She had only flapped her wings once and yet she was actually so tired. What was up with this third phase? It was too different from what she was expecting. This incomplete Heavenly Path should be a test for First, Second and Third Heaven geniuses, it shouldn't be able to bring out anything that made her struggle so much under normal circumstances, at least not outside the Inheritances themselves.
Mae hesitated for a moment before laying Ryu's head on her lap and looking toward the ledge of the city with a semi-worried expression. How long would it take them to catch up? Would there be enough time?
"Hm?"
Mae looked toward Ryu's hand and noticed the pill in it.
"100%?!"
Mae had been so distracted by the flying that she hadn't even noticed that Ryu had succeeded in re-refining the pill as well. It was no wonder he had collapsed, his Focus Qi must be entirely spent.
'This is absolutely ridiculous. I've never heard of someone running out of Focus Qi before they ran out of stamina or qi in general…'
What Mae didn't know was that Ryu had the Southern Heavenly Wind fused into his body, on top of the vital life forces of countless vitality related talents. And on top of that, even a Dao God would run out of qi before Ryu ever thought of it being a problem. He might not be able to use his Chaos Qi, but that didn't change the fact his meridians were connected to an entire plane.
Ryu's life force itself would give out before his qi ran out.
Mae shook her head and took the pill out of Ryu's hands before opening his mouthful and putting it in. After making sure the pill melted and didn't start to choke him, she relaxed as Ryu's wounds began to heal.
It wasn't an exaggerated pace, but it was definitely at a speed that could be seen with the naked eye. Even so, Mae couldn't help but be shocked. This speed was more than what she had expected as well, especially considering the devastating nature of Ryu's wounds. It wasn't just the wounds themselves, but rather the exceptionally high level qi that had caused them.
For a pill to be able to force them out so quickly was beyond her expectations. Now, it seemed that she just had to wait for Ryu to wake up.
Mae looked up. She expected to crane her neck to see the ancient cube above, but by some mystical power, she could see the list clearly no matter what angle she looked at it from. She couldn't help but read those names again, going over Tatsuya again and again.
There was no doubt that those were Ryu's relatives, but why was it that she had never heard of them?
The Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Heavens were exceptionally vast, this much was true enough. But a person or people that could rank in the top three of all time, shouldn't she know them? Unless they were from an exceptionally ancient time?
But that didn't make sense either. Because if they were so ancient, then shouldn't Ryu have been born on the Fourth Heaven at worst? If he had family members that went ahead of him, it didn't make sense for him to have still come from a smaller world, unless…
'Tatsuya… Dragon… if his other family members are dragons, maybe that would explain things… they've never really been… cohesive.'
Mae's gaze flickered. It was also possible that she just didn't know of them yet because they had already gone ahead to the Seventh Heaven and higher. If they could rank first and third here, that wasn't exactly impossible…
…
As Mae was trying to understand the complicated family tree of her new husband, the other geniuses had finally caught up. The issue they faced, though, was now they had a climb of hundreds of kilometers ahead of them and the pressure was already great.
Vie looked up with an ugly expression. He could tell at a glance that climbing to the city would be a tall task. By the time he made it, wouldn't Ryu have already greatly recovered?
He cursed under his breath. This was all Akura's fault, he regretted not killing that half-dead bastard when they shot by him earlier. If not for his incompetence, Ryu wouldn't have been able to break out of that encirclement and flight or not, he wouldn't have been able to make it here so easily.
Gritting his teeth, Vie grabbed onto the chain and strapped his glaive to his back with his other hand. There was no time to waste and there was only one objective ahead.
He had already accepted that he was less talented than some others, that was fine. His current goal had already been to surpass the Sixth Heaven geniuses to begin with, so he had started off with that assumption from the beginning. One more person that was talented than him wouldn't make much of a difference.
What would make a difference, though, was his attidude.
Ryu Tatsuya, right? Fine, he could be more talented than him for now, but he would claw back whatever advantage he could even if it meant risking his life!
In this life, he could only be number one!
Vie released and growled and began to climb with his greatest speed, enduring the pressure of the chains.
…
The city gates of the diamond city loomed, casting a shadow over the deeply slumbering Ryu. However, at that moment, in a distant Heaven, an old man slowly opened his eyes.
A deep pressure radiated, nearly crumbling the Immortal Mountain he meditated within to ash.
The moment this pressure radiated outward, the Sect below was in an uproar.
"Ancestor is awake!"
"Ancestor has come out form seclusion!"
"Ancestor is still alive!"
Dao Sovereign Chaotic Space sat in complete silence. His expression didn't seem to have either anger or sadness on it. He had seen too much in life and his reaction toward such things weren't what most would expect.
Even so, when his memories fused with that of the incarnation he left in the incomplete Heavenly Path, his gaze still narrowed somewhat.
A youth willing to look the inheritance of a Dao Sovereign in the eye and crush it. That youth's Dao Heart is exceptional, and considering the fact he was branded, it's obvious that he could have formed an Ancient Dao long before and just hadn't wanted to attract more attention.
He might have bothered to care if the youth had any other Spiritual Foundation, even if it was Common Grade… but an Inherited Spiritual Foundation?
The Dao Sovereign closed his eyes once more, his deep wrinkles settled.
That youth wasn't worth his effort.
That Tatsuya name, though… It sounded familiar but he couldn't quite remember where he had heard it from before.
...
What the Dao Sovereign didn't realize was that in destroying his inheritance, Ryu's actions had also caused his incarnation to be damaged, albeit just a small amount. This change had disrupted the flow of memories form his incarnation, leaving him with only a vague impression of the Tatsuya name.
Had Ryu not done this, the casualness of Dao Sovereign Chaotic Space would have vanished.